The Super Secret Pumpkin Patch

I took Miss M on the North Shore Scenic Railroad's "Pumpkin Patch Train" this year as a Halloween treat.


The train was advertised to take us to a secret pumpkin patch where we could pick a pumpkin, ride the train, see the museum, enjoy a magic show and other goodies. And that's mostly what we got.

The Train ride was fun - I hadn't been on the NSSRR in a long time so I enjoyed it and Miss M was excited too. We traveled north through town to the secret patch location. It was not "ideal" (as it had been in my head) but it was okay. It was just a grassy area located about 5 miles (or 30 mins by scenic rail car) north of where The Depot is. They had pumpkins, hay bales, etc set up and once off the train we got to go choose the pumpkin of our liking. Miss M grabbed on immediately - a very nice one I might add!



After picking our pumpkins it was back on the train for the ride back to The Depot. We were entertained by a magician along the way. Back at The Depot we enjoyed cookies & lemonade, Miss M had her face painted and we watched the full magic show. We didn't have a lot of time to look at the trains & the Children's Museum but that gives us a good excuse to go back!

She had fun and that's all that matters.

Pumpkins!

More details tomorrow....

Shrek 2

Tonight I picked MariAnna up after school and brought her to our house. It was a simple evening, but I hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks so I just wanted to get back to basics (again).

We had dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches & tomato soup - perfect for a 'crisp' fall day); we worked on spelling homework and she asked if we could watch SHREK 2. Naturally I obliged!

The house is still a bit upside down from refinishing our floors last weekend, so we sat in the kitchen, on the couch (!) watching Shrek & his pals on my laptop. Dang that thing comes in handy!

Next up...The Pumpkin Train!

Updates!

It's been a while since I update Miss M & my adventures.

A couple weeks ago we just did some mellow hanging out. I picked her up from Karate and brought her to my house. We made tacos! It was adorable. I gave her the job of grating cheese. She had never done it before and was eager to give it a shot. I think we got MUCH more cheese on the floor than in the bowl. The cats enjoyed that! She started grating the skinny end but when that proved to be too difficult she switched to the wide side (of a block of cheese). I've never used that approach myself but hey! It worked.

After dinner we spent some time reading. She is supposed to read for 20 minutes a day. I have a collection of Dr. Seuss stories and she picked one of those. I think it was challenging for her but she stuck with it! I was very proud of her. I keep trying to instill in her how FUN reading is (she thinks it is just too hard right now to be fun) and how many worlds it can open up! And all the adventures & friends you can meet along the way. Yes, I am a dork and I LOVE to read.



Later that week I picked her up from school and we worked on homework (handwriting) and made dried beef on toast for dinner. She had never had it before and GOBBLED it up - seriously! She ate a ton of it. I'm glad she enjoyed it. In the picture she was showing me how a "lady" wipes her mouth (heh).